Ready
by littlesolo
Summary: Following the events of the finale.
1. Chapter 1

Leaving the rest of the reporters to Lauren and her Dad, Claire had gone to find Peter. Seeing that the situation was winding down for now, Hiro offered to take Peter and Claire anywhere they wanted to go. After teleporting Claire to her dorm hallway, Hiro had said good bye after declaring her part of the Justice League. She made her way down the hall trying to think of what to say to Gretchen, but her thoughts were brought up short as she noticed her door and it looked like the area in front of it had seen a lot of traffic. _NO COMMENT_ had been written on the whiteboard on their door. "Gretchen?" called Claire as she gave a tentative knock. She took a step back when she heard what sounded like furniture being moved around. Suddenly, the door swung open and Claire was yanked inside. Before she had time to react, she found herself engulfed in a hug. "Oh, thank god it's you! If it was another reporter I was seriously considering calling your dad to come shoot them." Claire pulled Gretchen closer to her, burrowing her face in her neck and inhaling her scent. _This_ was exactly what she had needed. All the chaos from before seemed to just fade away. Gretchen guided Claire over to her bed and sat down. Claire took a deep breath and sighed. "So... I guess you know what happened where I was, what happened here?" Gretchen kept Claire's hand in hers as she started to explain. "Well I was doing my physics homework, well, guessing at it really since I wasn't paying attention when it was being explained... So naturally, I decided to take a break and check my email and I see this streaming video of this super girl who jumped off the top of the ferris wheel. So then I checked my socks and then grabbed my phone and was ready to take off when I get a call from your uncle Peter saying that you'll see me afterwards, and that it's best that I stay here and avoid the press. I wrote no comment on the whiteboard and was heading back inside when all these reporters just started to swarm down the hall. I swear it was like Hitchcock's The Birds out there!"

Claire smiled at the way Gretchen rambled through her explanation. Despite having her life thrown into chaos as well, Gretchen just went with the flow and still managed to make Claire smile. "Wait a sec Gretch, why did you check your socks?" Gretchen tried to hide her face behind her hair, but when Claire brushed the locks back, there was a bright blush that Gretchen's skin had no chance of hiding. She managed to here her mumble something. "What was that?" If possible, Gretchen's face seemed to turn even redder. Gretchen cleared her throat. "I said I was checking to see if you had knocked my socks off." Claire couldn't help it. She burst out laughing and grabbed Gretchen into a tight hug when she tried to hide her embarrassment. Once she managed to get a hold of herself she looked up into Gretchen's face and saw her shy smile. Without hesitation, she pulled Gretchen into a long kiss. "So, what happens now?" asked Gretchen as she let Claire find a comfortable snuggling position. "Now? Now, we snuggle and take advantage of the microwave and mini fridge we have until Dad calls with a plan." said Claire with her eyes closed. She let herself start to drift but could sense Gretchen about to say something. "Claire can I ask you something?"

"Why'd I do it? I was just so tired of hiding. I figured that the world's first look at specials shouldn't be fear, like Samuel planned, but to just let people know we exist. It's just easier to start out on the right foot instead of waiting for things to go wrong."

"That's cool... but I was going to ask how'd you manage to find the courage to jump off the ferris wheel? I mean that's like the tallest of all high dives, looking down would make me chicken out." Claire's eyes popped open as she felt a warm feeling fill her chest and a smile go across her face. Leaning up again she kissed Gretchen again. "I don't know I wasn't really thinking about it. I mean the fact that it might knock your socks off was just a bonus."

AN: Review if you want me to continue!


	2. Chapter 2

Safe house. _Sure_. Not that Gretchen didn't feel safe, she did. Who wouldn't feel safe with a former sociopathic/sadistic serial killer and a women that could turn herself into ice or water guarding the place. Super human paramedic included just in case something went wrong. When her own superhero girlfriend wasn't around, Gretchen tended to stay close to Tracy and Lauren. She'd met Lauren briefly at thanksgiving, and spent time helping her prepare meals for the group. _Nothing more domestic than making sandwiches with a big ass gun on your hip and a healing bullet wound in your shoulder._ Despite the fact that she was the only one in the group with nothing to add to the mix, Gretchen didn't feel out of place. Tracy was easy to get along with, especially after making Claire's face turn an interesting shade of red when she said, "So, _this_ is the friend you were telling me about." Gretchen, Tracy, and Lauren all match each other's witty one-liners, which was all the more fun when they were teasing Peter and Sylar. Gretchen also figured that it wouldn't hurt to have the other women on her side should Mr. Bennett pop up. Claire said he had no super powers and had made him apologize for threatening her. _That_ had earned him a glare from Tracy and Lauren. But while Mr. Bennett _himself_ may not have any superpowers, those Clark Kent-like glasses weren't fooling her for a second. They contained the laser vision of truth beam, Gretchen was sure of it. While Claire had said that she had been impressed to see her stand up to her dad in his memory, Gretchen secretly thought she had been too scared to think before she spoke. I mean who mouthes off to a guy sitting in the dark, waiting for you to come home? She'd seen enough old mobster movies and horrible _Lifetime_ movies to know that the scene never ended well for the unsuspecting girl.

So, here she sits eating cheese and crackers with Claire, Tracy, and Lauren as they all glance towards the tv screen to see "continued coverage of the Specials: Arlington University student Claire Bennett...."

"How'd they get your class schedule?" asked Tracy. Claire groaned. "At least it's my old one." Gretchen squinted at the screen. "Hey! I didn't know you tested for the advanced math course!" Claire rolled her eyes at the surprised looks she was getting. "I didn't. Annie told me to try, but a massive flop sweat attack was enough to convince me that it wasn't for me and send me sprinting outta there." Lauren smirked. "Claire Bennett: able to survive bullets and 50 foot falls... but math? Not so much." Claire retaliated by stealing a handful of pretzels from Lauren's plate. "Her roommate Gretchen Berg was unavailable for comment-"

"HEY! I had plenty of comments! Just none that could be broadcast or printed..." pouted Gretchen, which earned her a kiss on the cheek from Claire. "... but here's what some of her other classmates had to say about her-" continued the news anchor before Peter hit mute. " Hey, isn't that the guy you accidently dumped your coffee on because he wouldn't stop hitting on you?" Claire glanced to see the student being interviewed and nodded. "Well, despite having scalding hot coffee poured down his front, he still thinks your awesome... and oh look! Now they're interviewing our fellow sorority sisters!" Claire let her head fall on to the counter. "From now on I'm going to trust your instincts when you get your bad-feeling-vibes. The sorority was a bad idea and so was the carnival. Next time I try to go off and do something like that, get Trace to freeze me or something."

"Deal."

TBC?


	3. Chapter 3

Things were moving along probably as normally as they were going to get. Tracy and Claire had dyed their hair red in an attempt to blend in with the masses. To Gretchen, Claire still looked attractive as ever but to everyone else it was just another way to easily point her out to reporters. For the most part, reporters left Claire alone once they figured out her response was always going to be "no comment". This was all something Gretchen didn't have to worry about since she usually froze up, thankfully Claire, Tracy, or Lauren was usually there to drag her away from them. It had been months since the Carnival and the publicity was finally dying down. There had been questions from various government officials but Gretchen hadn't expected to be one of the ones they questioned. Claire had given her a kiss and said "but you were with me almost every step of the way!"

"As morale support and comic relief maybe, but not anything worth noting. I mean they asked me about Becky..."

"And what did you say?" asked Tracy as she set a bowl of jellybeans on the table.

"I said that in the sorority, she seemed like a Stepford wife, all smiles and cheer. Otherwise, she was just a psychopath that was trying to kill me."

"Well last I heard, they still hadn't found her." commented Lauren. Tracy smirked. "Who'd think it'd be so hard to find an invisible girl?"

"Have they tried baby powder?" asked Gretchen, trying to hide her grin and keeping her eyes on the jellybean bowl. It still earned her a playful punch from Claire. Earlier in the week Gretchen had setup an easter egg hunt with chocolate eggs. She figured Claire could uses a pick me up after a meeting with Peter and her Dad regarding the use of her powers. These meetings always made Claire mad seeing as the rules would apply more to Peter or Sylar than to herself. If Claire ever used her powers in public it was because she had been _injured_ in public. The only flaw in her plan was that while she was waiting for Claire to come home, she had gotten hungry so she had started in on the chocolate bunny. Luckily, she'd bought an extra one. "Has the Easter Bunny stopped by?" asked Claire when she entered the room.

"Easter Beagle" mumbled Gretchen around a marshmallow peep bunny. That day, Gretchen had learned there was such a thing as too much easter.

When the girls weren't around, Gretchen had taken to playing chess with Sylar. He would try to throw her off her game by telling her something creepy about medieval history. She'd throw him off by not reacting and then telling him whatever thought was currently on her mind. Last time, she had told him that she had been wondering for a long time what his hair would look like in a mohawk, followed by checkmate. Claire found her friendship with Sylar odd, but attributed it to the fact that Gretchen was able to make anyone smile.

TBC...


End file.
